Incomprehensible

The edited volume I wrote an article for over the summer fell through because most contributors still haven’t submitted their pieces and haven’t indicated when or if they will. The due date was August 1. I don’t mind it for myself because the article is good and I’ll simply send it out to a journal today. But I remembered the names of the organizers and the participants and guess how likely I am to collaborate with any of them in the future.

I always plan to finish everything at least two weeks (and usually a month) before a deadline in case I have an emergency or a major obligation pops up. To fail to submit a piece I committed myself for and not even get in touch with the editors to explain what happened is behavior I will never comprehend.

I wonder how these colleagues respond to students who do this kind of thing in class.